Narcan pilot program to celebrate 1,000 overdose reversals

The state will celebrate its Narcan pilot porgram surpassing 1,000 reported overdose reversals in a ceremony at 2 p.m. today at the Statehouse – just 18 months since reaching 500.

By Matt Stout

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

By Matt Stout

Posted Sep. 21, 2011 at 12:01 AM
Updated Sep 21, 2011 at 9:10 PM

By Matt Stout

Posted Sep. 21, 2011 at 12:01 AM
Updated Sep 21, 2011 at 9:10 PM

BROCKTON

» Social News

Hillary DuBois was talking to a client at Brockton Area Multi-Services Inc. recently when a man walked to her side and waited.

DuBois, the coordinator of the Brockton Mayor’s Opioid Overdose Prevention program, excused herself, thinking he wanted to speak to the client when he stopped her.

No, he said, he wanted to speak with DuBois.

“You saved my baby brother’s life,” he said.

Months earlier, the man had come to DuBois, who helped enroll him in the city’s Narcan pilot program, which supplies addicts and their loved ones with the medicine naloxone, the generic version of Narcan, to reverse drug overdoses.

The man had saved his 17-year-old brother’s life by spraying the Narcan up his nose, blocking the opiate’s effect so his brother could breathe, DuBois said.

“I saw your face. I could hear your voice. I could see what you were wearing,” the man told DuBois, she recalled. “I did what you said, and I saved his life.”

The story is one of more than 1,000 people saved through the program, established statewide in November 2007 after an initial pilot in Boston.

“For everyone who tells me what I do is wrong, who tells me that this is controversial,” DuBois said, “that made it worth it.”

The state marked the milestone in a ceremony Tuesday at the Statehouse, just 18 months since reaching 500.

Operating at eight different pilot sites serving 12 communities, including Brockton and Quincy, the program has enrolled more than 10,000 people, officials said.

Through the end of June, the state had tracked 1,006 reversals through the Department of Public Health-backed initiative – a figure officials believe is likely higher given that all people don’t report it. Sixty-four “saves” were reported in Brockton alone since 2009, according to the DPH.

“Massachusetts is a national leader in opioid overdose prevention,” said Secretary of Health and Human Services JudyAnn Bigby

Critics of the program contend supplying addicts with the kits is only a band-aid to a bigger problem and gives them with an excuse to keep using.

Others question if it’s safe putting the medicine in the hands of people not overseen by doctors or EMTs.

Narcan programs have received backing in cities throughout the country, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Baltimore, and support has generally outweighed criticism.

Joanne Peterson, founder of the Learn to Cope support groups now running in Brockton, Gloucester, Lowell and Salem, said Narcan will be made available at every chapter in January or February of next year.

“It saves a person’s life in order to go to treatment,” Peterson said. “There are a lot of people in long-term recovery that were saved by Narcan.”